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Home stretch (almost)

(from a motel 8 somewhere in eastern Tennessee, watching “Roman Holiday”)

We were about eight hours away from Philadelphia on the long drive home from Birmingham today, when Mark told me to look in the side mirror, and I saw smoke trailing behind the van—then Mark pumped the brakes a little, and realized they were practically gone—-he put the flashers on and pulled over, at which time a HUGE cloud of smoke billowed from under the van—when we got out and approached the back passenger wheel, we saw fire—
During this whole time, Jackie S. was sleeping in the back, and as soon as Mark saw fire he banged on the back window and yelled “GET OUT THERE’S A FIRE” and she jumped out and Mark threw all of our water on the flames, and when he ran out of that he threw a bottle and a half’s worth of powerade on it, which finally stopped it. So I guess if you don’t have a fire extinguisher around, strawberry lemonade powerade can be useful (you should still have a fire extinguisher though).

I must admit, while I was trying to come to grips with the fact that the van could very well explode at any second, taking everything we’ve brought with it (more than that, that it might’ve taken our lives had we just kept on going without notice), I was worried with my inability to truly grasp the seriousness of what was happening—it was one of those instances from which a number of even worse things could have happened. We could totally be dead, for example—-but once everyone got away and the fire was out and we sat waiting to see what would happen next, aside from the sensationalism of the situation, I couldn’t fathom the danger we had just avoided—it makes me wonder how much distance I put between myself and the world—

BUT I was pretty thrilled to get to ride in the back of the local sheriff’s car—as Jackie put it, “it’s pretty cool to ride in the back of a cop car and not be in trouble.” True words indeed.

I know there are weeks and weeks worth of shows and travel that have yet to be logged in here—I plan to write more extensively once we’re home—which will hopefully be soon—At the moment we’ve got to be up early for the free hot breakfast…

Spiders in Tennessee are terrifying.

From a Motel 6 in Utah...

There isn’t really time for me to post anything of much substance today, since everyone’s packing up in our room—-I just thought it would be really cool to post something from a motel in Utah.

Greetings from Utah!

I will quickly say this—Wyoming is so far my absolute favorite state to drive through.

I will post something real in the near future.

Don’t trust anything I tell you.

Someone in this motel just walked a wolf out the door.

We’re totally in Utah right now!!

Portland, ME (Put a little change in my bucket...)

July 13 1:49 am
(somebody at the house we’re staying at just asked to borrow one of our backpacks for a hot second; we think we heard him say he found a lobster….)

It was P.S.’s and my first time performing in Maine tonight, and aside from a few man-eating bugs taking a particular liking to my ankles, it was a truly great first time for us—-also I think the first instance so far in which kids moshed to one of our sets (P.S.’s, not mine…)
I’ve been the worst at updating this thing; we usually don’t tend to get to where we’re staying till around 2 in the morning every night, at which time we crap out and go to sleep—HOWEVER there have been a few after-show adventures on this trip, including, but not limited to:

Atlanta & Athens—Sleeping at two different houses in Georgia that both had manx cats for pets. I woke up one morning to one staring at me. It had a folded ear and a little white mustache, and I laughed out loud as soon as I saw it, while everyone kept sleeping. That’s not really an adventure I guess, just something I’d particularly like to remember…

Wilmington, NC—Watching 4th of July fireworks on an upper-level parking lot in —we were really close, black shit kept falling on us. Some got in Jackie Sullivan’s eye—
about a half-hour later we played in the Soapbox Laundro-Lounge, and it remains one of our favorite shows so far; lots of really friendly kids, free pizza (thanks Chason), and an amazing street performance by a man with the stage name of Pot Head—his work will hopefully find its way onto Youtube soon—later that night we went swimming in a pool in an apartment complex (again, thanks Chason), and I spent my first night in the van. It was hot. I also discovered that the honey dijon potato chip is my new favorite chip.

Richmond—Drinking Sangria from a wine-skin pouch, and enjoying one of the best peanut butter and jelly sandwiches of my life. Thanks Pam. Also one of the most comfortable nights of sleep I’ve had so far (thanks Louis). Also, watching Independance Day (thanks Will Smith). And M.I.B II (no thanks, Will Smith).

Baltimore—We went cliff jumping with the Frisby House kids at Pretty Boy Lake after the show (there are some pictures floating around somewhere on the internet)—15 people were crammed into one van, which had the back benches removed and a wooden bed built in it’s place—four people laid on the bed, and three of us laid underneath it, which was sort of terrifying, especially every time it creaked. I kept poking Katie and Allison Crutchfield (members of P.S. Eliot) in the ankles until they figured out it was me—we had to walk about a mile in the dark woods before we got to the water, and then Ramsey mentioned there were snakes here and there, and sharp rocks—The height of the cliff I jumped off tends to change every night I relay the events. Tonight I’m going to say it was 15 feet. I got a lot of water in my nose. Could only manage to do it once. Katherine (P.S.) and Jackie S. (our bassist) also jumped.

Philadelphia—Late night at the Oregon Diner in Philly, and another triumph for the claw arcade game. Came home to the rest of the band watching Mallrats…

New Brunswick & Brooklyn—On the Brooklyn night we enjoyed the company and amazing sets of the Diamond Sea, who toured with us from Baltimore until then—We hope we get to see them on their home turf in Australia soon..also, lots of Andre.

Albany—-Going to bed at 5 in the morning (I’m still not sure how that happened),eating some of the best French toast I’ve ever had the next day (thanks Alex and Tim), and later finding a puke-like pile of something on our van. It looked like potatoes. And cheese. We imagined it to possibly be the work of some bros we had encountered the night before, who lived across the street. A dollar was stuck to our window with some sort of brown substance. Had to use three different rags to clean it off. Considered whether or not to keep the dollar. For a good 10 minutes. The possibility of the brown substance being poop was too great. What a waste.

Also, lots of Andre.

A CRAZY show in Boston. 5 good friends drove all the way from Philadelphia and I can’t begin to describe how happy I was to see them. And a bunch of sweet kids came to this show too (some even brought cupcakes—thanks Joseph)—and one person drove all the way from Canada—it was an epic audience, and I’m really glad I got to meet so many kind people—-and to sing along to Celine Dion songs in my friend Danny’s van. Very loudly.

Which brings us to Portland. Saw a good friend from school before the show, and ate amazing sushi. Also ate a lot of Cheez itz party mix on the way to the show. Wish I hadn’t done that. After the show we played our first game of Texas Holdem. We were hoping to play it pretty much every night but haven’t even come close to that. Will Granger (P.S. lead guitar) also cooked delicious fried eggs for everybody and some people from the house made french fries for us. Thank you 176 Coyle Street.

There’s so many more people to thank than this— I plan to try and get them all down in here soon—I so far can’t believe how good people have been to us on the road—I hope we are as fortunate as we head west this coming Thursday…

And for the record, I am capable of swimming the regular way. I just prefer to dog paddle.

Philly send-off

June 28 10:34 pm
(I write this while burning CD’s of the demo, our housemate Joe watching a crazy film completely orchestrated with Philip Glass soundtrack on the adjacent couch, and Mark playing poker in the kitchen with Courtney, Kevin, Jackie S., Dom, Camille, and Ally. They’re all drinking Bum juice [Hurricane]) and eating 6-month old potato chips.)

Some kitchen quotes:

“wait wait, I just need to make sure here—-does your boyfriend have balls?”

(while listening to some band):
“Oh man, this band sued my friend’s band.”
“Hey, they sued my friend’s band too! You took the words right out of my mouth..”

Tonight I feel truly happy, enriched, and lucky to be here, and be young.
Earlier Camille made crepes and bagels FROM SCRATCH, and I listened to a really great Harry Belafonte 45 my mom found and gave to me. I also ran around a lot in an attempt to get some things done for tomorrow, while at the same time trying to take in all the great stuff happening around me, my friends cooking and laughing together, and making me feel so at home. it’s natural I suppose to feel most at home when you know you’re about to depart for some time, to many unfamiliar towns.

I’m leaving with our tour bassist, Jackie S., and my cousin Pam tomorrow. We’re driving about 14 hours to Pam’s sister’s house (also named Jackie) in Georgia, hanging out for a couple days, then playing our first show with P.S. Eliot on July 2nd in Atlanta. This tour will be my 4th, and carry so many firsts with it—-It’ll be the first time I’ve ever had more to offer people than a few copies of a CD I burned and packaged by hand (though we’ll still have those around), my first time touring as a band (Mark and Jackie will be playing with me from Pittsburgh on), and my first time to see the west coast, to name a few. It’s a very new time. I’m a little afraid. It could go terribly. We could fail! And it’s even riskier now than ever, because I’m not the only one putting faith in this project. If I screw up now, it won’t just be myself that is affected. It could even affect the other band on tour with us, which is already more people than I usually bother to consider.

I’m pretty terrified of this growing up business. But I’m also really, really, really excited and thrilled, and happy to have this chance to do something kind of big. It’s gigantic to me.

I just ate some of those old potato chips. They need salt.

I
Pictures and other things soon.

-Frances